May 16 - June 9, 2013 Start the Festival in style with the SIFF 2013 Opening Night Gala! The evening features the Seattle premiere of Much Ado About Nothing, with director Joss Whedon and cast members Alexis Denisof, Amy Acker, Nathan Fillion, and Clark Gregg scheduled to attend.

The first Western-financed fiction feature made entirely in North Korea, Comrade Kim Goes Flying tells the story of Kim Yong-mi (Han Jong-sim), a young woman following in the dusty footsteps of her coal miner father (Kim Son-nam). Outside of work, however, Yong-mi is devoted to her amateur acrobatics. When she's offered a post with a construction crew in Pyongyang, she jumps at the chance, not least because it'll allow her to see her heroine, gymnast Ri Su-yon (Kim Un-yong). Like many a plucky young girl with a dream before her, Yong-mi gets backstage at the circus, and meets Su-yon and the other acrobats, including stuck-up male star Pak Jang-phil (Pak Chung-guk). A chance to audition for them on the high wire is a dream come true, but the young miner's trapeze skills fail her, and Jang-phil mocks her for the attempt. Yong-mi, however, is not so easily deterred, determined to prove that just because she works underground doesn't mean she shouldn't be able to fly.

Director BiographyAnja Daelemans works as a line producer for film and television. Her productions have won 61 awards in international film festivals, and Daelemans herself has been nominated for two Academy Awards® for her short films Fait d'hiver and Tanghi argenti. After a study visit to Asia in 1993, Nicholas Bonner became so fascinated with North Korea that he banded with Joshua Green to create Koryo Group, a company that specializes in cultural exchanges with North Korea.

Sponsored in part by Delta Air Lines, Snoqualmie Tribe

Director:

Anja Daelemans, Nicholas Bonner, Gwang Hun Kim

Principal Cast:

Han Jong-sim, Pak Chung-guk, Ri Yong-ho, Kim Son-nam, Han Kil-myong

Country:

Belgium, United Kingdom, North Korea, United Kingdom, North Korea, Belgium

8/19/2014
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